Blogging To Kill a Mockingbird: Part 2 (Chapters 2 & 3)

Chapter Two
Summer passes quickly (like it always does), and Dill heads back home. Scout gears up for her first year of school, which she's very excited about. But once she gets there, she realizes that she kind of hates her teacher, Miss Caroline Fisher.

Miss Caroline is a young teacher. It seems that everything she does annoys Scout. When she finds that Scout already knows how to read very well, she tells her to tell her father not to teach her anymore. Classic lazy teacher move ("I don’t want to have to think of things that will keep you interested, so stop being smarter than everybody else.").

Scout is offended. She says that Atticus is too busy to teach them (meaning that she's taught herself to read), but Miss Caroline assumes that she’s lying. During lunch, when Scout tries to complain to Jem, he tells her that Miss Caroline is trying out a new style of teaching. Guess what; this doesn’t really make Scout feel any better, because she still thinks her teacher sucks.

One of the boys in school, Walter Cunningham, did not bring lunch to school. Miss Caroline gives him a quarter and tells him to pay her back tomorrow. Scout thinks this move is just ridiculous. Apparently Walter’s family is huge and poor—not a good combination if you’re a teacher who wants to get her quarter back. Trying to help out, Scout tells the teacher that the family is so poor that they pay Atticus with nuts and vegetables and stuff when they need legal help. Miss Caroline hits Scout’s hand with a ruler! Bam! 1950s education! That’ll teach you pesky kids for trying to be helpful!

Chapter Three
After some teacher-on-student justice, it’s time for some student-on-student justice. During recess, Scout jumps on top of Walter and literally (and I’m using that word correctly) rubs his nose in the dirt for getting her in trouble. Scout’s logic is a little murky here, and that’s my fancy way of saying “wrong.”

Jem steps in, breaks up the fight, and invites Walter to lunch. At the Finches’, Walter and Atticus talk about farm conditions, which is awesome. Here's this kid everybody seems to believe is kind of worthless, sitting down to an adult conversation with Atticus Finch. Then Walter pours molasses all over his meat and vegetables, which grosses Scout out. I’ve never had molasses [ed: WHAT???? really???] and I’ve certainly never poured it all over meat, but I’m willing to give the kid the benefit of the doubt, since he’s so knowledgeable about farming conditions.

When Scout says something about Walter's poor taste, Calpurnia calls her into the kitchen, where she gets hit once again for making fun of this kid.

The chapter than jumps back to school, where Miss Caroline becomes terrified when a cootie crawls out of the hair of a boy named Burris Ewell. Maycomb clearly has a very strict caste system; Scout tells us that the Ewell family is even poorer and less respectable than the Cunninghams. Burris only comes to school on the first day of every year so that he doesn’t get in trouble with the law. I’m no truancy officer, but I’m not totally sure how he's getting away with this. Burris leaves the room, calling the teachers a bunch of names that I don’t think any elementary school teacher then or now is prepared to deal with, and Miss Caroline begins to cry. The rest of the class tries to console her, and the day ends without any more incidents.

When Scout gets home, she talks to Atticus. She says she’s not feeling so hot and that she doesn’t think she can go to school anymore. She suggests that he should teach her. Atticus, the smart lawyer parent, says it would be illegal for her to ditch. (See? I don’t know how this Burris kid is working his attend-on-the-first-day-only scam.) He promises, however, that he’ll keep reading to her as long as he doesn’t tell the teacher. He also gives her a now-famous lesson: “you never really understand a person until you…climb into his skin and walk around in it.”

Unfortunately, Hannibal Lecter’s father gave him the same advice.